Effective immediately, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has advised U.S. airlines that they no longer are required to ask passengers those two baggage-related security questions at check-in.

You know, those ultra-tight high-impact security interrogation phrases that really had terrorists worried:

• "Has anyone unknown to you asked you to carry an item on this flight?"
• "Have any of the items you are traveling with been out of your immediate control since the time you packed them?"

No big loss here, as those questions were about as effective as the IRS 1040 Income Tax Form question that asks the taxpayer to list all income received through illegal means! This was an intelligent decision by the TSA.

The other decision they made recently, mandating the removal of baggage templates at security checkpoints, may or may not be wise depending on you point of view. I've always had mixed feelings about those templates. In theory, they were a good idea and I'm sorry to see them go. However, they were so often ignored that they became many times a running joke to see people simply lift them up to slide the kitchen sink through.

I agree with United 100% when they state, "Adhering to the carry-on size requirements is critical to the safety of customers and employees on board the aircraft". Problem is, nobody wants to be the one to step up to the plate and enforce the adhering. Many times, unfortunately, those baggage templates became nothing more than an unused prop on the set of a laughable B movie.

And so, this carry-on enforcement responsibility (and the passenger hostility that goes along with it) eventually ends up on the planes to be dealt with by flight attendants and CSRs.